(Free Jazz, Avant-Garde Jazz, Cuneiform) [WEB] Rob Mazurek & Black Cube SP - Return The Tides: Ascension Suite And Holy Ghost - 2014, FLAC (tracks), lossless

This music was made two weeks after the passing of my dear Mother, Kathleen Palma Barbara Curach Mazurek.
I have never witnessed such an intimate and emotional situation in my life (diagnosed with Stage Four cancer and gone 11 days later) and the profoundness of the event still has me reeling with a sense of wonderment, bereavement and, once again, the realization that in fact I know nothing about anything. I was brought up Catholic and, soon after my official release into the world at the age of 18, began an intense study of Buddhism and various other religious, philosophical, political and poetic dogmas and non-dogmas. I have always thought of the idea of passing as a beautiful thing, in which the soul or life force of the individual is somehow transferred to the immensity and brilliance of the entirety. The idea of Heaven and Hell (and everything inbetween) has always been a hallmark within the limited spectrum of what we humans can come up with and the idea of God or Gods has, for some, been an interesting way of putting a life and circumstances into some kind of mysterious belief system that can at times be fed off of and at times be fed to. My Mother was a kind of spiritual being that would drink her cup of green tea every morning, marvel at the birds flying through the backyard and bestow upon you, slowly and quietly, the beauty and virtues of life. Sometimes you would not even notice it happening. I notice this now and think about it often. One of the very last things she said to me was that no matter where she was in the universe and wherever I was, she would always hear me. This gave her peace and myself as well. We played this music with as much spiritual and emotional energy as I have witnessed in a situation, and we channeled the Mother Energy through it—towards the safe travel and passage to wherever my Mother might be going and, as my tears (our tears) fell after the last voice is heard in this suite of sound, the life force that is forever hers spoke silently and gently towards a new beginning that is not far off for any of us. – R.M., May 8, 2014
Return the Tides is a heart-felt tribute to Rob Mazurek's mother, Kathleen Mazurek, who died on May 4, 2013, just days after receiving a diagnosis of late stage cancer. Her sudden and unexpected passing motivated Mazurek to honor her generous spirit through music that would, in his words, "clear a path for my mother into the unknown to ensure her safe journey to the next."
Although currently based in Chicago, Mazurek returned to Brazil, where he lived from 2000-2008, to call upon his closest friends and associates for help with this project. In addition to his Sao Paulo Underground bandmates, keyboardist Guilherme Granado and drummer Mauricio Takara, Mazurek recruited multi-instrumentalist Thomas Rohrer, percussionist Rogério Martins and MC Rodrigo Brandão. Christened Black Cube SP, the sextet features some of São Paulo's most creative artists. Considering the destabilizing nature of its inception, this session captures their venerable rapport at its most unbridled.
Helping Mazurek "process the loss in a ritualistic, cathartic way, through sound," this tight-knit group embraced the extremely personal nature of the effort and recorded the album at a studio owned by Takara's family. Conceived as a suite and performed in one unedited take, the set seamlessly progresses through four episodic sections, each running over a quarter of an hour.
Opening with a scintillating barrage of ceremonial percussion, "Oh Mother (Angel's Wings)" builds in intensity with wistful lyricism from the leader's plangent cornet, segueing into the title track's driving polyrhythms, which inspire some of the group's most impassioned performances. Solos are brief and fleeting, with dense collective improvisations lending credence to Albert Ayler's assertion that "Music is the Healing Force of the Universe." The following number, "Let the Rain Fall Upwards," spirals skyward, roiling with backmasked loops and psychedelic efx, while the closer, "Reverse the Lightning," modulates from rapturous fanfares to a chorale of harmonized chants and hushed ruminations, symbolically signifying the safe passage of Kathleen's soul.
Where most requiems tend toward melancholic remembrances, this memorial unflinchingly embraces the totality of human experience, transposed into a dynamic electro-acoustic sound world. According to Mazurek, "the raw energy of the sound vibrations simultaneously act as a clarifying, healing source that allowed me and the other musicians to enter into the sorrow and devastation and come through to the eye of the storm ..." and in the process, symbolically work through the stages of grief, from denial to acceptance.
Supported by his empathetic sidemen, Mazurek plays with a hitherto unheard fearlessness channeled from a wellspring of emotions. Return the Tides is Mazurek's most personal and poignant offering to date; cathartic and compelling, it combines avant-garde jazz expressionism, bold electronic experimentation and hypnotic Tropicália rhythms with a profound spirituality, yielding a ritualistic homage worthy of its honoree. - Troy Collins, AAJ

Rob Mazurek - Cornet, Electronics, Voice
Mauricio Takara - Drums, Cavaquinho, Voice
Guilherme Granado - Keyboards, Synths, Sampler, Voice
Thomas Rohrer - Rabeca, Electronics, Soprano Saxophone, Voice
Rogerio Martins - Percussion, Voice
Rodrigo Brandão - Voice
Recorded May 20, 2013 at El Rocha Studio, São Paulo, Brazil by Fernando Sanches.